Archive for March, 2019

As a project that is going on as of the current moment, I need to come up with just a few ideas for a podcast. Correction, an “inquiry based” podcast. Podcasts of this form are investigative, have a narrative, and answer a central question. ‘Course who knows what I might like to ask ultimately. Still, there are a few. The following two ideas are the ones that have most come to interest me, that which has stuck in my mind. Maybe I’ll pursue then, maybe I won’t. We’ll just have to see.

What are the small moments that blossom into life changing events?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, has experienced this. Little things that seems so inconsequential at the time, but come incredibly important later on. Miniscule details that arise their heads viciously. A slight word that ruptures the peace. You know, that kind of thing.

When does the hated becomes important?

Again, this is pretty universal. Those agonizing moments of sitting through someone’s boring lecture, a tedious meeting, a skill course, or just on the train to work. We all know what it feels like to be forced into a task over and over till it absolutely saps your will. Then, out of nowhere, it is needed. That fire training exercise that your boss had the whole floor tools aids the emergency, the daily commute puts you into the line of saving someone, and a boring lecture might just hold a crucial piece of advice.

In a podcast by Invisibilia titled Post, Shoot the listener is confronted by the graphic and tragic tale of Brandon Wingo, and how his untimely death to gang violence all tied back to a social media post. Highly informative, the podcast is, as Alix Spiegel says, “looking at the relationship between fake and real.” In that manner is where the form of the thing emerges.

Much of the podcast is laid out simply and in a straightforward manner. Very early on the audience is given the conclusion, the conflict, and the characters, but the area surrounding that is most interesting. Rather than simply attempting to weave a narrative back and forth, trying to keep the audience on the edge of their seat, the crew at Invisibilia angle for a critical approach.

There is an air of the podcast from the very onset of having a very specific goal to research in mind; the connection between the imagined and created to the facts and reality, and how they affect one another. From there, the unfortunate story of Brandon Wingo is used as a framing device, a backdrop to that research goal. Now, this might seem callous in nature, to use someone’s tragedy as a narrative tool, but it really doesn’t come off that way. Invisibilia has a careful touch to the program, welding together that analysis and emotional appeals quite deftly. Personal and commemorative anecdotes to Brandon Wingo are merged together with the musings of the podcast members in a way that is highly effective.In the combination of sentimentality and navel gazing Invisibilia accomplishes its goal quite admirably. The structure switches back and forth in a manner that is able to effectively commingle into an atmosphere that is both personal and informative. One might call it emotional manipulative, but of course it is. Afterall, it is ultimately a piece of entertainment, be it a exceptionally informative one.